BRIEF NOTE ON THAI PONGAL(TAMIL NEWYEAR) 

Thai Pongal is one of the most important, Prestigious, and elaborate festivals in Tamil Culture. There are thousands of explanations about what are these Pongal celebrations are meant for... Well, to be short and sharp I would describe Pongal Celebrations are a Symbol of Gratitude. And the name Thai Pongal can be explained like, it is the festival which is celebrated on 1st of Tamil month Thai by preparing Sweet Pongal using freshly harvested raw rice, freshly prepared Jaggery to thank the nature, animals, and the people who all are helped in agriculture.

India is an Agricultural based Country, and The State of Tamil Nadu has a long-running historic culture for its agricultural practices. So the Pongal Festival definitely has a strong and long history. Its basic idea is to thank everyone who all are the main factors that helped to have a successful harvest at the end of the harvest. The important factors that are needed for agriculture in those days are Sun, animals like a bull, and the people who worked hard in their field. To thank every single factor they celebrated it for three days.

And to make sure these harvests are preserved or stored properly they dedicated the previous day just to prepare their home by cleaning and decorating their house, Bhogi. Then the next day is Suriya Pongal, which is the main festival when people prepare Pongal in New Terracotta pots, with newly harvested raw rice and jaggery in Sunlight by decorating the area with colorful rangolis, flowers, and most importantly fresh Sugar Canes😋 in front of their house not in the kitchen. And then they will worship the Sun and distribute the sweets to everyone.

Then the third day is Mattu Pongal( To Thank the Cattle), this day is entirely dedicated to the cows and the Bulls who played a major role in agriculture from preparing the land before agriculture to transport the harvest to different places. So on that day, the festive will took place in the sheds, again they will decorate the place and the animals with lots of colors and flowers. Then they will cook Pongal in the shed itself and worship the animals by proving them their favorite food items. And most importantly to celebrate and encourage the bulls they conduct different games like Jallikattu.

I think they might use Jallikattu as a way of showing off the world that the beautiful bond between the owner and the bull on a special occasion like Pongal. The final day of the Pongal Festival is Kanum Pongal(Day of Relaxation and Enjoyment), this particular day is dedicated to relaxation and enjoyment. To do that they visited different places or visited their friends and families. Again I thought this is also a way of thanking the people who all are been there when they were working hard on the land as a support system both physically and mentally. And by doing that they are also got a chance to share their experience with each other which can be useful to get some new ideas to make agriculture even more feasible.

Even though I am not really from an Agricultural family or background. Basically, I am from a village so I definitely got the chance to observed them closely and witnessed how exactly they are doing agriculture on their lands. From my experience, one thing I can tell about them is they are not doing agriculture just for the profit but their only wish is to have a successful harvest and to distribute their harvest without any wastes that's all, their intentions are so pure. So talking about agriculture and our Tamil tradition and culture on a special occasion like this makes me feel really proud. 

 And I wish to do a detailed post about the completely Pongal related details with possible pictures. To do all those things I definitively need to do loads of research so hopefully, I will do that post at least for the next Thai Pongal. Now I would love to dedicate this particular post to every single farmer who is really working hard to feed the world. My sincere thanks to the real people for working hard not just physically but in all other ways like they are going through in Delhi during these days🙏. And my one and only wish in my life is to do agriculture at least on a small level, I am sure no matter how hard it is I can make my dream come true one day✌.

To share my Pongal memories, it's definitely sweet and colorful. Like I mentioned before in my Diwali sweets post we used to visit my paternal grandparents' home for every special occasion like this, not just as every single family of my dad's siblings will be there. So meeting everyone is itself is so fun on top of everything my elder brothers used to bring bunch and bunches of fresh Sugar cane's so some times we used to conduct Sugar Cane eating competitions. Since they had cattle in the house Mattu Pongal as well will be so great. I am really feeling so good to share all the good things with you all today. So always "Stay Positive and Keep Smiling😀".